Updates from May, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Mark 7:35 am on May 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    On my Mind this Week 

    I can’t believe its already Friday!  This past week has flown by so fast.  Last weekend as most of you know was Mother’s Day, so my work at the restaurant pretty well took over everything else.  This week has been about imagining and implimenting the groundwork for our church network’s bank account, and network website.  Check out the website here.  It will be a site where leaders can recieve training, where those in Chicago can connect with others in the underground network (though Facebook-style connectivity), and sojourners can learn more about Jesus.

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    The bank account is essentially a ministry expense account.  We’re working on setting up a budget and all the fun things that go along with that, so that faith communities in the network can contribute to it and participate in doing ministry and serving God together.  I’ve posted an article on Organic Economics for the network, but I’ll link to it here too.  Its essentially a short document on some creative suggestions for how to handle a common fund as an organic network.  If you have any other ideas, post them in the comments below!

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    All this laying-the-foundation stuff is fine and dandy, but I’m ready to move on.  I’m ready to flex some creative muscle, and do something besides web design and paperwork.  What are some latent ways the Kingdom is bubbling up in Chicago?  What are some ways to subvert the power systems in our city, to put them on public display and reveal the brokeness inherent in the system?  How can we display Jesus, both in our everyday friendships and in special occasions/events this summer?  These are the questions that are on my mind now.

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    David Watson has been presenting some of his work on disciple making to several of my friends in Dallas.  People like Jared Looney, Phil McCollum, Gailyn Van Rheenen, and others are there – and I’m wishing I could be too.  But they’re streaming it online for your viewing enjoyment.  Watch now!

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    Lastly, I’ve been working with others pretty intentionally on a “reproductive catechesis.” …No, this is not sex-ed!  Have you ever wondered what Christian education is for?  I believe that there is a cycle that we have broken in modern Christianity that needs to be amended.  We have brought people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.  But rarely do we ask them to move on to any form of maturity in Christ.  Even more rare is giving them the expectation from Day 1 that their mission is to then bring others to Jesus, thus completing the cycle.  Its a one way street – a half-cycle, which will not develop into much.  I’m working with others in Chicago to create a pathway that brings people intentionally to a saving relationship with Jesus and his people, move them on to maturity, and in the process give them a chance to show Jesus to others.  Each one, reach one. If every Christian focused in on doing this once a year, the whole world could be reached in less than 20 years.  All 7 billion of us.  Let that sink in.

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    Oh, and Lost’s season finale was crazy.  Cubs are tied for 1 in the Central Division.  Katrina makes the best calzones in the universe (maybe even the multi-verse, although a calzone face-off between Katrina and parrallel-universe Katrina would be pretty interesting).  And biking is totally in again.

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  • Mark 9:05 am on May 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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    The Kingdom Flu 

    We’ve heard plenty about Swine Flu – its potency now seems to be waning, while the media-virus continues to spread like its the only thing the news wants to report on.  That along with a conversation I had the other day with several church planters got me thinking about the nature of the gospel and the American Church.

    1st Question: Is the gospel a virus?

    2nd Question: If so, is the church in America spreading the contagious gospel virus?

    3rd Question: If not, is the American Church really spreading the gospel?

    Last Christmas, I wrote about the message of God becoming a “virus of peace” that began in the stables of a Jewish city (no swine there I’m guessing) and the contagion spread into the hearts and minds of people out to the vast reaches of the Roman Empire until it collapsed under its weight.  Even the Emperor Constantine knew his best political strategy was to adopt the virus of love and peace and mutate it into his own version. After the anti-virus, Christians were no longer threats to the Empire, they were the strongest supporters and defenders of it.  The HOLY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH was born.

    But it wasn’t just Constantine who thought he could weild and redirect the voracious gospel disease, we see the gospel spread to other parts of the world, and at times it is derailed and sterilized into a philosophy, or an institution, or a culture (not the kind in a petri dish).  An often referenced quote of mine by Pricilla Shrier,

    In the first century in Palestine, Christianity was a community of believers. Then Christianity moved to Greece and became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome and became an institution. Then it moved to Europe and became a culture. And then it moved to America and became a business.

    Now, I believe that the gospel has picked up important things along the way, but I think too often it has adopted to the culture, instead of adapting to the culture.  Here in America, if we as a culture assume a position of business, then the gospel virus should subvert and infuse the business world with all the revolutionary power of the first century gospel – not simply become a consumer-religion.

    The virus, to spread, must learn to adapt – meaning those infected with God’s good news must learn to reimagine what it means to be contagious. If the gospel isn’t spreading, we should wonder if the church has not become itself the anti-virus.  I hear all the time those who say, “I love Jesus – but I hate the Church.”  I don’t think there should even be a difference between the two.

    My question I ask myself and those who are part of the underground network is: “What if it works?” What if the way we live for Christ now works – and people’s lives are changed forever.  What if it works – and a cascading population of millions becomes sick with the virus of God’s peace in this city… What IF its a movement that cannot be contained by the religious elite, the scholars, or the politicians of our world today?  It no longer is a tame, resting lion, but a fierce beast charging after darkness and like Aslan, covering the world in Good.

    Here are a few thoughts on the shape of this new, strange virus, this Kingdom Flu I’m seeing beginning to take out unsuspecting Americans:

    • a cooperative spirit – willing to work side-by-side with others, Christian and otherwise, to see God’s work accomplished in this city.
    • a fever of boldness – bravery and abandonment to a cause that transcends fearfulness.
    • not sweating the small stuff – God’s mission to transform the whole city is the primary goal that brings together God’s Church.  The Whole Church brings the Whole Gospel to the Whole City.
    • a sneeze of churches – churches that spread not by addition (one church planting another church every 3-5 years) but one church’s love becoming so contagious that it’s people are penetrating every nook and cranny of society, and seeing myriad churches begin simultaneously.
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  • Mark 7:20 am on May 4, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: 000 doors, 10, ad campaign, United Methodist Church   

    Church: An Active Verb 

    Check out this amazing video, from the United Methodist Church’s ad campaign.

    May more of God’s family across the globe reimagine their calling, and catch this kind of vision!

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    • Chadd 2:39 pm on May 6, 2009 Permalink

      Thanks Mark. Very encouraging! I always appreciate your posts…sorry I’ve not been very good at communicating!

      Blessings!

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